CARLE VANLOO. 1705-1765

54 THE ALLEGORY OF COMEDY. 1753

Oil on canvas. 122 X 151 cm. Inv. No 742 Signed lower right: Carle Vanloo

It is a companion picture to The Allegory of Tragedy (The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Inv. No 741) and was painted in 1753 on the commission of Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, for her Chateau de Bellevue. After her death both canvases went to her brother Abel Poisson, Marquis de Marigny.

Provenance: until 1918 The Vorontsov-Dashkovs Collection, St Petersburg — Petrograd; 1918—27 The Hermitage, Leningrad; since 1927 The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

Exhibitions: 1861 St Petersburg; 1922—25 Petrograd Bibliography: Кат. ГМИИ 1961, p. 32; Ernst 1928, p. 180, ill.; Reau 1929, No 672; L. Reau, Carle Vanloo, in: Archives de Г Art Franfais, vol. 19, Paris, 1938, No 72

54 THE ALLEGORY OF COMEDY. 1753